August 15, 2014 Homepage Archive

Where Your Dreams Become Reality

Archived Homepage For August 15, 2014

Quote Of The Day

“At first, my passion for the sport revolved around training. I loved to race, but I loved to train. When I’m out there and I feel strong and I feel powerful, it’s an absolutely fantastic sensation. Without getting too philosophical, it just feels good. And that encourages me to run more and that brings on more success in racing and that perpetuates the cycle.”

– OTC’s Jordan McNamara talking about where his passion for the sport began. Many runners grow to love the sport after experiencing success. For McNamara, it was love at first sight.

Meet Jordan McNamara

LRC ProfileThe Long Road: Jordan McNamara’s Injury-Filled Path to Success A big fan of the sport since HS when he had pictures of Webb, Lagat and Goucher on his wall, Jordan McNamara is so determined to rise to the top that 14 stress fractures haven’t been able to stop him from becoming one of America’s best milers. Plus insight on OTC members Ben Blankenship, Pat Casey, Hassan Mead, Ciaran O’Lionaird, and Andrew Wheating.
*Jordan McNamara, Will Leer, Ben True, David Torrence And Garrett Heath Lead Deep Field For Falmouth Mile This Weekend

Baton Usain Bolt Used To Anchor Jamaica To Victory At Commonwealth Games Sells For $4,000

What's Going To Happen To NCAA Sports?

With NCAA ruling, are non-revenue sports in danger? With more money going to football/basketball, will sports like track and XC get cut? An insider said, “I’d be shocked if non-revenue sports continue, or how it’s even conceivably possible assuming football and basketball get full cost-of-attendance (scholarships). Again, I’m not saying it’s wrong, but let’s be honest about it.”
NY Times: After New NCAA Ruling Is The “Myth Of The Pure Student Athletes” Finally History?

Doping News

Amantle Montsho Faces Possible 2-Year Ban As Her “B” Sample Comes Back Positive Montsho tested positive for a stimulant after fnishing 4th at the Commonwealth Games.
Syringes Belonging To Indian Athletes Found In Glasgow 2014 Village But Commonwealth Games Federation Chief Claims It’s “Nothing Sinister”

Sunday: RRW: Six Storylines Ahead Of 2014 New Balance Falmouth Road Race

Random To Extremely Random

Tom Tom Employs “Sexist” Ad To Showcase Running Watch Feature
Is Your Dog Getting In His Miles? If Not, There’s Now A Gym For Dogs No joke.
Irishman Garret Doherty Is The “Usain Bolt Of Backwards Running” He won 3 events at the World Championships – the 200, 400 and 1,500 – and hopes to see it become an Olympic event by 2020.
2015 Boston Marathon Will Have Field Size Of 30,000 An increase of 3,000 over the typical number, but still less than the 36,000 in 2014’s race.
Industry Trend Is Moving Towards More Comfort In Running Shoes/Apparel

Vote For Track: Ashton Eaton And Steve Prefontaine Make “Oregon’s Greatest Athlete” Final 4 Go ahead and make your vote.

Texas Tech’s Cierra White Named USATF Athlete Of The Week After Her Triple Gold Medals At NACAC U-23 Championships She won the 100, 200 and ran the opening leg on the 4 x 100. Other performances included NCAA 1,500 champ Shelby Houlihan winning the 100 in a MR 2:03.00.

RIP Robin Williams

Article On Robin Williams’ Olympic Connection (includes video) Besides being a 1:58 800 runner, Williams had other connections with Olympic sports and often joked about them during his acts.
RW Article Including Video Clip With Williams Explaining How Running A Marathon Gives A Cheaper High Than Cocaine
Video Of Williams’ Act Talking About Bikila, Doping, Caster Semenya And More
*NOTE: Video was removed from YouTube because of licensing. Here is another video, but if it is also removed, just Google “Robin Williams Weapons Of Self Destruction” and go to just after the 52-minute mark.”
MB: Robin Williams RIP

Mid-D News

Jordan McNamara, Will Leer, Ben True, David Torrence And Garrett Heath Lead Deep Field For Falmouth Mile This Weekend Women’s field led by Morgan Uceny, Gabe Grunewald and Katie Mackey.
Interesting Read:Did You Know There Was An American In The Field When Roger Bannister Ran The First Sub-4 Minute Mile? George Dole was in the race and finished 5th in 4:25. Dole says, “I was maybe 30% competitor, 70% spectator. I wanted to see the race as much as anybody else.”
Deon Lendore And Laura Roesler Win Bowerman Trophy Fan Vote The fan votes count as one ballot.

Chicago Just Got Really Interesting

Kenenisa Bekele Will Run His Second Career Marathon At The 2014 Bank Of America Chicago Marathon Bekele ran 2:05:03 in Paris and says his goal is to break the 2:03:45 CR in Chicago. *Discuss

Long-D News

Man Breaks World Record For 24-Hour Barefoot Run With 137 Miles Andrew Snopes ran 136.98 miles on an indoor track in Alaska. He says he only started running 3 years ago when he was inspired by the book, “Born to Run.”
IAAF Work, Rest And Play Interview With Italy’s World Marathon Silver Medalist Valeria Straneo The last book she read? Christopher McDougall‘s “Born to Run.”

A Look At Some Of The Possible Impacts Of The New NCAA Ruling Giving More Autonomy To The Top Conferences

Random Stuff

Barcelona 1992 Olympic Stadium To Be Turned Into Sports Amusement Park With Virtual Reality Competitions Against The Pros
Japanese Athletes Told Not To Wear Team Track Suits To Avoid Atack At Nanjing 2014 Summer Youth Olympic Games This due to the poor relations between Japan and China.
Glasgow 2014 Athlete Memorabilia Being Sold Off Random stuff such as couches used in the athletes village as well as bigger items like the baton used by Usain Bolt in the 4 x 100.
Recap Of British Masters Championships

A Real Running Hero

LRCA Real Running Hero: The Flo Groberg StoryTwo years ago, former Maryland track and field and cross-country runner Flo Groberg helped thwart a suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan. This is his story.

2014 European Champs Schedule/Results Watch Live On 9 Feeds

LRCMahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad Does it Again – Wins Steeple, Loses Singlet and Respect And is DQd The man who threw punches in Monaco in 2011 and shoved a 14-year-old girl mascot in 2012 may have topped himself today in terms of bizarre behavior.
*MB:Mekhissi-Benabbad is an idiot

More: Russia’s Sergey Shubenkov Defends His 110H Title With 13.19 The big pre-race favorite, France’s sub-13 second man Pascal Martinot-Lagarde, only finished 4th (13.29), but was elevated to 3rd after a DQ.
Day 4 Preview: Abeba Aregawi And Sifan Hassan Go Head-To-Head In 1500 Final
GB’s Adam Gemili Fastest In 200 Semis With 20.23; He’ll Face France’s Christophe Lemaitre In The Final 18-year-old Dina Asher-Smith broke a 35-year-old British junior record to make the women’s final with 22.61.
Czech Republic’s Two-Time Olympic Champ and WR Holder Barboara Spotakova Wins Javelin
IAAF Full Thursday Euro Recap Anzhelika Sidorova won the women’s PV for Russia.
GB’s James Dasaolu Likely To Be Left Off 4×100 So As To Not Mess With The Team Chemistry Dasaolu won the individual 100, but was injured earlier in the year so hasn’t been training with the team.
Martin Bingisser Men’s Hammer Preview Bingisser will be in the competition himself in his first major championship. LRC wishes him the best of luck.
Some Unhappy That Athletics Ireland Went Outside The Normal Rules To Select Fionnuala Britton As Part Of The Euro Marathon Team Britton has never ran a marathon or even half-marathon before, but will make her debut at Euro Champs on Saturday.
European Athletics Day 3 Evening Review

Previous African Champs News

LRCNijel Amos Slays Another Giant, Takes Down Mo Aman And Wins 2014 African Championships 800 Let there be no doubt, Amos is the current ruler of the men’s 800. Talk about a negative split: 57-51.
MB:Nijel Amos does it again, Amos beats Aman to win 2014 African Championships

MB: Tuesday at 2014 African Champs – Hellen Obiri (w1500) and Jairus Birech (m steeple) win gold

Full Day 3 Recap: African 400 Record Holder Isaac Makwala Wins In 44.23

Jenn Suhr’s Parents Say She’s Recovering From Pole Vault Accident With No Career-Ending Injuries
*Video Of Suhr’s Jump Where Her Pole Snapped She injured her wrist, hand, ribs, neck and shoulder.

Random Stuff

Funny Video From The Onion: New App Tells You Why You’re Running
College Runner Returns Envelope Of Cash Found On Run
*MB: Ethics Question: Found Money
*MB: money found on a run?
Study Says 30 Miles/Week May be “Excessive” For Those Who’ve Had A Heart Attack Take the headline with a grain of salt.

Michigan Track Classic ResultsWebsite*Full Fields

MB:Nick Willis runs fastest mile ever in Michigan (3:53.50) wins 2014 Michigan Track Classic, Ajee Wilson wins 800 in 2:00.29 (updated) 7 guys broke 4:00 and Wilson won by nearly a second. *MLive.com Recap

Pre-Race: MB: Loaded 2014 Michigan Track Classic with Nick Willis, Ajee Wilson is Sunday – Who You Got?

Other Weekend Results

MB:2014 NACAC U23 Champs Final Day- Michigan’s Erin Finn (16:06) and ASU’s Shelby Houlihan (2:03.00) win gold
MB:2014 NACAC U23 Champs – Baylor’s Rachel Johnson, Kentucky’s Matt Hillebrand Win Gold
Asafa Powell Defeats Marvin Bracy In Brazil, Runs His Fastest Time Of Year (10.02)
South African Olympic Marathon Runner Irvette van Zyl Runs Big 32:20 10km On Road Amazingly, that’s the same time that Zola Budd ran on the roads at age 17.
Brazil’s Jucilene de Lima Sets New National Javelin Record Of 61.99

Day 1 African Champs News

Eritrea’s Nguse Amlosom (Tesfaldet) Wins Eritrea’s First-Ever Medal (And Gold) At African Champs In Men’s 10,000 Morocco’s Mustapha El Aziz was 2nd and CG silver medalist Josphat Bett was third as Moses Kipsiro was a DNS.

Athletics Kenya Screws Up Again?Kenyans Struggle On Opening Day After Disastrous 32-Hour Travel Time From Glasgow And to top it all off, some had to compete in the wrong uniforms. “I have run disappointingly slow times that I didn’t imagine I could run in a continental event.”
Mercy Cherono And Genzebe Dibaba Set For Clash In Women’s 5,000

CG 10,000 Champ Moses Kipsiro Wants To Switch To Marathon Soon He says he’d already have done it but his agent Ricky Simms insisted he stick to the track.
Nigeria Expects To Dominate Sprints And Medal Count At African Champs
South African Jav Thrower Sunette Viljoen Wants 4th African Title, Then Will Compete In Continental Cup
Many Of Kenya’s Commonwealth Games Starts Will Be Favorites At African Champs, Which Start Sunday Rudisha, however, isn’t competing.

83-Pound 99-Year-Old Ida Keeling Sets Age Group Record For 100m At 59.80-Seconds Includes video.

Thursday's Euro Champs News

LRC Mo Can Still Kick: Wins 10,000m Gold At Europeans The last kilometer was slower than usual, but in the end, it was vintage Mo Farah with a 54.4 final lap. Recap, analysis and video of final lap. *Discuss Mo’s Win Here
*RRW: Farah Dominant In European Champs
*Telegraph: Farah Back To Brilliant Best

More: IAAF Full Day 2 Recap: The Netherlands Dafne Schippers Wins 100 Gold With 11.12 Into A Strong Headwind Belarus’ Andrei Krauchanka set a decathlon world lead with 8,616 points, Robert Harting won the discus, France’s Eloyse Lesueur the LJ (Darya Klishina was 3rd).
GB’s James Dasaolu Wins 100 Final At Euro Champs In 10.06, Beating France’s Christophe Lemaitre (10.13) GB went 3-4 as well with Harry Aikines-Aryeetey and Dwain Chambers.
Former “Plastic Brit” Tiffany Porter Wins 100 Hurdles Gold For UK
Ireland: Mark English Makes 800 Final But 400 Runner Thomas Barr Disappointingly Does Not France’s Pierre-Ambroise Bosse had the fastest time in the 800 semis with 1:45.94.
40-Year-Old Jo Pavey Talks About Balancing Running With Being A Mother Of Two “Perhaps people relate to me a bit more because I’m this age and a busy mum. When I was 25 I kept going on training camps all over the world and just ate, slept and trained – people can’t relate to that.” *2nd Article
Ireland’s Fionnuala Britton Excited About Her Saturday Marathon Debut After A Disappointing 8th Place Finish In 10K She decided last minute to make her marathon debut at Euro Champs, only 4 days after the 10,000.
GB’s Andy Vernon Talks About His Twitter Row With Teammate Lynsey Sharp “It was just a joke that got out of hand really, that’s pretty much it. … I’ll have a chat with her here as well, I’ll clear the air and make sure there’s no uncomfortableness.”
European Athletics Day 2 Evening Recap
*Morning Recap
GB’s Former Euro And Commonwealth 110H Champ Andy Turner Retiring At The End Of The year The 33-year-old said, “Now is the right time for me to hang up my spikes and become a normal guy again.”

African Champs Day 4

IAAF Day 4 Recap: Kenya’s Joyce Chepkirui Wins 10,000 Over Emily Chebet By .01 Eunice Sum comfortably won her 800 heat in 2:02.43 as Asbel Kiprop won his heat over Ronald Kwemoiand Ayanleh Souleiman as all 3 advanced.
Kenya’s Defending Javelin Champ Julius Yego Unfazed About Facing Former Champ Ihab Abdelrahman Of Egypt

Previous Euro Champ News

RRW40-Year-Old Jo Pavey Makes History, Wins 2014 European 10,000 Title Pavey finally has European gold and is the oldest European champion in any event in history. She’s also the slowest 10,000 winner (32:22).
*Pavey Has No Plans On Retiring And Still Wants To Break Her 2:28:24 Marathon PR
*BBC

W1,500:RRWSifan Hassan And Abebe Aregawi Win Heats, Set Up Clash For Women’s 1,500 Final The women’s final is Friday at 1:25 pm ET. Laura Muir won’t be in it, nor will Olympic silver medalist Gamze Bulut.
*GB’s 4:00.07 Woman Laura Muir “Gutted” After Going Out Heats In other news, Paula Radcliffe denies criticizing Mo Farah, saying, “Mo’s maybe seen the headline and not read further in the article.”
*MB:Guess who bombed out of 1st round of women’s European 1500?

Men’s Steeple:Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad Begins Quest For Double Gold The reigning champ took it easy in the steeple prelims.
*Video: Spain’s Victor Garcia Knocked Out When He Hits The Track Face First In A Steeple Fall He has no lasting injuries, but has no memory of the crash.

Good Start:Russia DQs 6 Coaches Whose Athletes Were Doping We agree that a big part of the anti-doping fight needs to be going after athletes’ support crew.

Week That Was

WTW Chris Solinsky Or Galen Rupp? Mo Farah Is No Bannister Or Rudisha, Anniversary For Joan Benoit, Love For Kendal Williams Hard to believe now, but before he got injured, Chris Solinsky may have had a better career than Galen Rupp. That and much more as we analyze the past week.

Day 2 African Champs News

IAAF Day 2 Recap: Shock Result In Women’s 5,000 As Ethiopia’s Almaz Ayana Wins Over Genzebe Dibaba And Mercy Cherono Ayana ran 15:32 to beat Dibaba by almost 10 seconds as Cherono was way back in 5th (16:08). In the men’s 800 semifinal, Mohammed Aman just beat Nijel Amos (1:46.63 to 1:46.73) as both advanced to the final along with Olympic 1,500 champ Taoufik Makhloufi. Despite a strong headwind, Nigeria’s Blesing Okagbare won the 100 in a championship record of 11.00.